Indonesian Leader Urges End to Violence

President B.J. Habibie called yesterday for an end to violence in Indonesia following protests and riots that left at least 14 people dead and hundreds injured in three provinces.

Over the weekend, rioters reportedly burned police, military and government offices in one province following a military crackdown. Elsewhere in the Southeast Asian nation, civilians clashed over whether to seek independence in one region, and mobs attacked a police station in the country's second-largest city.

Indonesia has been plagued by civil unrest over the past year, and several separatist movements have grown bolder since the ouster in May of president Suharto, who ruled for 32 years with an iron hand.

"The society is easily provoked to go rampage and to do violent action, even though all those acts would only harm our common interests," Habibie said today. His televised speech came before a ceremony at the country's largest mosque to mark the birthday of the Koran, Islam's holy book.

Since taking office, Habibie has faced sometimes violent protests by students and is struggling to revive Indonesia's shattered economy, which is facing its worst crisis in 30 years. Ethnic and religious tensions have also set off riots.

Soldiers searched the village of Pusung in Aceh province today for members of the Free Aceh rebel group, but made no arrests. The renewed military operations have jeopardized hopes that the armed forces would relinquish its security role in the troubled area.

Violence erupted in Aceh on Sunday after soldiers raided several buildings in search of Free Aceh rebels who are fighting for an independent Islamic state on the northern end of Sumatra island. Furious residents attacked the security forces, who responded with gunfire, officials said.

The dawn raids around the Aceh town of Lhokseumawe ended with the arrest of 132 people, police said.

The local hospital said nine civilians were killed in ensuing riots, all of them shot, while the military said one army officer died. Hundreds were injured. A rioter and a suspected army informer also died in fighting in the nearby district of Pidie, according to police.

Troops were deployed across Lhokseumawe today and there were no reports of fresh violence. Villagers and suspected rebels killed seven soldiers and kidnapped two others last week.

In the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, another region where separatist rebels operate, fighting between groups that oppose and support independence left two separatists dead.

On the main island of Java, police raided homes and fired shots in the air in the city of Surabaya early today during a search for rioters who burned a police station. Ninety people have been arrested since the attack Saturday.

Mobs in Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city with 3 million residents, had been angered by the death in police custody of a robbery suspect. Authorities claimed the man had been beaten by a crowd before he was turned over to officers.